Fans send off 2025-26 Utah Jazz with hope that the future is bright

Fans hold out their arms as Utah Jazz guard Ace Bailey (19) uses a T-shirt canon to launch shirts into the crowd on fan appreciation night after an NBA game against the Memphis Grizzlies at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City on Friday, April 10, 2026. | Rio Giancarlo, Deseret News The Delta Center is an unusual and special place in the NBA. The Utah Jazz have been a losing, tanking team for four years, but the fans still pack the building, buy merch, scream their heads off and stand behind the team despite wading through what has been a grueling and often tiresome rebuild.

“Especially here at the Delta Center, the support of the fans is not lost on us,” Jazz head coach Will Hardy said. That’s because Hardy and all of the players on this Jazz team know what arenas around the league look like for other losing teams. It’s not unusual for an arena of a losing team to look empty, sad and have a fog of quiet laying just over the top of the game being played.

But in Utah, that’s not the case. There have been 164 games here since the Jazz started this rebuild, and the fans have been there every step of the way. It was no different on Friday night for the last home game of the 2025-26 regular season “Gotta show out for your team,” lifelong Jazz fan Cord Geter said, decked out in Jazz gear and heading to his seat with even more at halftime.

“Always excited for them, no matter what. ” Fans reach to catch miniature basketballs during a timeout during the first half of an NBA game between the Utah Jazz and the Memphis Grizzlies at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City on Friday, April 10, 2026. | Rio Giancarlo, Deseret News Utah Jazz guard Bez Mbeng (21) drives to the basket for a layup during the first half of an NBA game against the Memphis Grizzlies at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City on Friday, April 10, 2026.